New Testament scholar Craig Keener releases three books Summer 2016
Dr. Craig Keener recently released Mind of the Spirit, Spirit Hermeneutics, and The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible. In these works, Dr. Keener uses ancient background to help researchers, faculty and students engage with Scripture in contemporary ways, using a historical and theological foundation.
“These three books were not written together, but happened to all come out simultaneously,” Dr. Keener said. “Mind of the Spirit engages a neglected theme in Paul’s letters: his teaching about the mind and cognition. Helping readers understand Paul’s adaptation of ancient psychological language will help us better apply it to Christian psychology and counseling today.”
Mind of the Spirit also helps to overcome a false separation between following Christ and using human judgment.
“Craig Keener has filled a significant gap in Pauline studies as only he could do: with thousands of references to ancient sources to help us understand Paul’s perspectives in context,” Dr. Michael J. Gorman, Professor of Biblical Studies and Theology at St. Mary’s Seminary and University, said. “The result is a work full of exegetical, theological and even pastoral insight.”
“What an enormous gift this book is to Christians in psychology and counseling, with its learned and thorough, yet readable organization of what we might call the apostle Paul’s ‘applied cognitive psychology,’ based on a redemptive-historical anthropology,” Eric L. Johnson, Lawrence and Charlotte Hoover Professor of Pastoral Care at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said.
Spirit Hermeneutics: Reading Scripture in Light of Pentecost answers questions such as, how do we hear the Spirit’s voice in Scripture and how do we respond appropriately. Using Pentecost as an example, Dr. Keener articulates how the early church’s experience should shape our reading of Scripture today.
“I warmly commend this informative and common-sense approach to a crucially important subject,” Anthony Thiselton of the University of Nottingham said.
In the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, a major new Bible release this year, Dr. Keener delves into the customs, culture and literature of biblical times. This work, with notes from Dr. John H. Walton (Wheaton College) in the Old Testament and Dr. Keener in the New Testament, uses context to clarify the study of Scripture, bringing fresh understanding to difficult passages.
“How I wish someone had put a book like this into my hands 50 years ago,” N. T. Wright, leading British New Testament scholar and retired Anglican bishop, said.
“I cannot recommend a study Bible any more than this one. Five starts!” Scot McKnight, Julius R. Mantey Professor of New Testament, Northern Seminary, said.
Dr. Keener is the F.M. and Ada Thompson Professor of Biblical Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary. He has authored 21 books, five of which have won book awards in Christianity Today. He is married to Médine Moussounga Keener, who holds a Ph.D. from the University of Paris 7, and serves as Pastoral Care Coordinator at the Seminary.
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